Video conferencing allows parties remote from one another to participate visually as well as aurally in a multi-party conference. Video conferencing provides an efficient mechanism by which multiple parties can confer with one another on business or other matters without having to incur the added expenses and time for traveling to a common venue. Although audio-only conferences provide one alternative to video conferencing, it is generally recognized that communications are enhanced when the audio aspect of conferencing includes a visual dimension as well.
Nevertheless, a persistent shortcoming of video conferencing is that conventional technology typically provides only a static view at each location of the conference. If more than one party is participating in the video conference at the same location, a fixed camera view may not be framed to adequately capture an image of each of the different parties. A particular party may not be well framed by the camera or may even be completely out of view of the camera when the particular party is speaking.
FIG. 1 schematically illustrates a conventional camera single-camera set up 100 for a video conference involving three parties at a particular location. With this typical single-camera set up, participant A is only partially in view because of the lens angle of the camera 102. Participant B is in view, but participant C is completely out of view. The problem stems from the limited field of the camera and the limits of the angle of view of its lens.
One solution, of course, is to physically change the direction of the camera as the different parties speak. This can be distracting, however, if one of the parties has to assume this task. A non-participant can be given the task. At the very least, however, the opportunity cost of the non-participant's time must be factored into the expense of the conference. Moreover, in some instances, the confidential nature of the conference may dictate that only select individuals be included in the conference, thus limiting the choice of a non-participant who can assume the task of directing the camera appropriately during the conference. The intermittent movements of the camera also can be distracting to the participants regardless of who is given the task of moving the camera.
Still another solution is to use a relatively wide-angle lens on the camera. A drawback of this solution, however, is that a wide-angle lens tends to distort the optical image rendered by the camera. Thus, even though all the conference parties are “in view,” their individual images tend to be small and distorted. Optical distortion introduced by the wide acceptance angle of a wide-angle lens can be removed from an image using known mathematical transformations of the video data generated by the camera, but even this approach typically results in images of individual participants appearing very small within the overall picture. These problems are inherent in a multi-party video conference where video and audio feeds are conveyed to different locations in real-time. The same problems also arise in the context of a recorded video conference such as a recorded video deposition. Accordingly, there is as yet no mechanism that is both effective and efficient for providing an adequate view of multiple parties at a single location during a real-time, multi-location video conference or a recorded, single-location video conference.